Tom Vilsack Secretary of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | Official Website
WASHINGTON, August 29, 2024 – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today joined the U.S. Department of Education along with education, parent, and school meal partner organizations to host a virtual pep rally celebrating the back-to-school season. The event aimed to thank those who educate and nourish the nation’s school children and highlighted steps taken by the Biden-Harris Administration to support school meals as an essential educational tool.
“Healthy school meals are an essential part of the educational environment and fuel children to learn, grow and thrive,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA is fully committed to setting kids up for success and this rally gives us the opportunity to come together and encourage one another to raise the bar for school meals in this new school year and beyond.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona added, “As someone who’s been a teacher and a school principal, I’ve seen how hard our school nutrition professionals work every day – and I’ve seen the incredible difference it makes when a student comes to class after a healthy meal.”
Earlier this year, USDA announced updated nutrition standards that provide schools more options for planning healthy meals. K-12 schools serve nutritious meals to about 30 million children daily.
Beginning this school year, schools have new options such as serving protein-rich breakfast foods like yogurt, tofu, eggs, nuts, and seeds. They can also buy local foods by requiring unprocessed agricultural products be locally grown or raised.
Denise Tapley Proctor from Regional School Unit #89 in Maine stated: “We are no longer offering breakfast bars that had so much sugar in them... We are constantly trying to reduce sugar and sodium in all our foods.” Phylicia Burford from Thornton Fractional High School District #215 in Illinois noted similar changes: “We have started to revamp our breakfast menu by removing sugary cereal items...”
Both districts received USDA Healthy Meals Incentives grants aimed at improving their meal operations.
Advancing free healthy school meals for all students is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. Eight states have permanently implemented these measures while others use provisions like Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for high-need areas.
Future updates will include gradual reductions in added sugars and sodium in school meals.
Since January 2021, USDA has provided nearly $13.7 billion in financial support through various programs including record-breaking grants like $14.3 million under Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grants benefiting 1.9 million children across multiple regions.
Additional investments include nearly $16.5 million in Healthy Meals Incentives grants aimed at fostering innovation within the school meals marketplace.
For more information on USDA's initiatives supporting healthy kids or other resources related to these efforts visit www.usda.gov.
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